Throughout Coples’ recruiting process, the pair remained in constant contact. They tore up the Kinston field three years together before Coples transferred to Hargrave Military Academy for his senior season.

Editor’s note: This is the last story of a seven-part series about former athletes from area high schools.

Michael Thompson got his first football when he was 4-years old.

He began playing on a team just a few years later, but long before then, Thompson formed a dream.

He was going to play NFL football.

The 2008 Kinston High School graduate had it all planned out: become a standout running back for the Vikings, garner an offer from UNC and, finally, hear his name called in the 2012 NFL draft.

He attributed innate speed to his productive career at Kinston.

“Speed, speed, speed,” Thompson said. “I was a lot faster than they guys I played against. I was small, I outran them. That was my downfall, being that I was small. Schools would come, saw me on film and be overwhelmed, but they’d see me (in person) and be like ‘That’s all, that’s it?’ ”

Thompson still made a name for himself on the gridiron, drawing college interest.

He only experienced the NCHSAA playoffs once, when the Vikings lost to Jacksonville White Oak, 27-14, in the first round his freshman year. A revolving door of head coaches tainted the football experience for Thompson and the entire team.

“Not having a stable coach had a huge effect on us as a team,” Thompson said. “We could never jell as a team.”

Thompson was still set. He had offers from Division I schools such as Duke, Clemson, and his dream school — UNC.

Since childhood, he loved the Tar Heels. There was no doubt he’d accept.

The Kinston Vikings were 3-0 to start his senior season. Then-head coach Tony Edwards led an “intense” practice one day leading up to Week 4, so Thompson and the defensive line accepted.

“The defense was just getting drilled that day,” Thompson said. “Mister Hike tackled me and I didn’t want to go down, so I kind of drug him a little bit.

“When we did fall, we just fell awkward.”

A dream shattered

For two days, Thompson didn’t know his ankle was broken. In all the years he played football, he’d never suffered more than an ankle sprain, which is what he thought the injury was.

Only this time, the swelling wouldn’t go down.

Thompson wound up having surgery, and what probably hurt worse than the wound was calling colleges afterwards.

“I had the surgery, got seven screws in my ankle and they told me I wouldn’t play ball no more,” he said. “They told me I wouldn’t play no more in high school.”

He lost all of his DivisionI offers, except for Duke. He said Blue Devils coaches could offer a partial scholarship if he could prove his ankle was completely healed. However, he didn’t have the money or grades to fund his stay at Duke on a partial scholarship.

“I was devastated,” Thompson said. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t know what I wanted to do after school. I just had it so set that I could go, that I could make it. Once they told me I wouldn’t play, I cried. I walked around school and cried, you know, literally bawling crying.

“I was heartbroken.”

Basketball season swung around and the multi-sport athlete was healthy enough to play, and he had a few months to cope by then.

Inevitably, a reminder of a lost dream revisited him: Signing Day.

“I was able to play basketball, and then Signing Day comes up,” Thompson recalled. “Boom: it all hits me once again, heartbroken all over again.”

Thompson, who went on to attend several different colleges before returning to Kinston in 2010, grew up with New York Jets linebacker and Kinston standout Quinton Coples and they made plans to go pro together.

Thompson remembers the exact day Coples signed with UNC, on Feb. 16, 2008.

Chapel Hill-bound Coples called his friend after inking and Thompson fought back tears as he congratulated a guy who went on to be drafted in the NFL.

Throughout Coples’ recruiting process, the pair remained in constant contact. They tore up the Kinston field three years together before Coples transferred to Hargrave Military Academy for his senior season.

Thompson said he was also supposed to transfer, but remained in Kinston to represent his home team. At the time, Carolina had offered Thompson.

But after the injury revoked his offers, Thompson sat back and observed Coples’ recruiting course.

It wasn’t easy.

The two grew up in the same apartment complex and have had a resilient friendship since. When they got their first cell phones, they pretended to be NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on the voice mail.

“For the first pick in the 2012 draft, we select Michael Thompson from the University of North Carolina,” it stated.

While it didn’t happen for Thompson, Coples was drafted in 2012. Since then, Thompson regularly visits New York and will be at Metlife Stadiumwhen the Jets open the regular season against the Oakland Raiders.

Through the downfalls Thompson experienced in his high school football career, Coples was there to pick him up.

“Quinton Coples was the one person to bring me through that injury,” Thompson said.

With a rewarding look on his face, he added, “That’s my brother, that’s my brother.”

Coples mimicked similar remarks.

“Whenever I’m going through something or if he’s going through something, we’re always there for each other,” Coples told The Free Press, “ever since I could remember.”

Because of their bond, it was no question for Coples to support Thompson emotionally after the injury.

“I think God positioned us to be brothers for life,” Coples said. “We were from the same neighborhood, the same places.”

Coming home

Thompson currently works in auto sales. He spent time at N.C. Central and N.C. A&T before his daughter was born.

When she came into the world, his chose between playing ball and being a father.

“It was easy for me to come back, give up school, give up ball,” Thompson said. “I had my father around, but he could never do anything for me. I could see his face, but he wasn’t there for me.”

Thompson, who also played basketball at Kinston, frequents local gyms to hoop, but he’ll never forget the dream ravaged by an ankle injury seven years ago.

He said it doesn’t discourage him from living his life and supporting his daughter. She’s 4-years-old, and when Thompson was that age, he didn’t know much about his father--- but he knew football.

So every once in a while, he remembers what he could have had.

“I just wanted to play,” Thompson said. “It was my goal, my dream.”

Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 and Jessika.Morgan@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.